Media Masters

Steve Wilson-Beales is Head of SEO & Editorial Product at Global.

One of the world’s leading media & entertainment groups, Global reaches over 50m consumers each week across media and outdoor advertising. Steve drives search strategy for its most high-ranking brands – Classic FM, Capital, PopBuzz and LBC – and is at the heart of the radio industry’s pivot to digital. He is the brain behind driving awareness to the Global brands via what has become an increasingly crowded search landscape.

Bel Trew is International Correspondent at The Independent.

Based in Beirut, Bel has been covering conflicts across the Middle East for a decade and has recently returned from an extended secondment in Ukraine. A series of her reportage ‘On The Ground’ uncovers the horrors that Russia has inflicted on Ukrainians – including clear evidence of torture and enforced disappearance. Bel relates the stark reality of war reporting, sharing harrowing details of what she saw shooting them and how she made it to stay safe. Drawing on her own experience, she brings up the subject of journalists risking their lives and suffering from PTSD – a common but ignored result of reporting from war zones.

Kiran Nazish is founding director of The Coalition For Women In Journalism.

Launched in 2017, it is the first worldwide support network for female journalists ‘at high risk of violence and harassment,’ with targeted support for those reporting from the frontline. Kiran started her journalism career in her native Pakistan and was inspired to set up the New York-based organisation because of the danger she had faced as a female reporter based in war-torn Middle East. The Coalition offers comprehensive support for the journalists at risk of PTSD and is spearheading an initiative to help newsroom managers reduce it happening in the first place.

Angelos Frangopoulos is CEO of GB News.

The channel marked one of the most controversial media launches in recent memory when last year it became Britain’s first new rolling TV news broadcaster in over three decades. Angelos reflects on the “teaching moments” from those rocky first few months, and how he wants to build on the new-found stability to grow the channel’s audience. He faces down those who sought to ‘cancel’ the channel before it was even launched by organising an advertising boycott, and shares with pride the evidence that those attempts failed – including the creation of 200 new journalist jobs. He also sets out plans to make GB News “distinctive” including “serving all communities across the UK”, unlike the other “London-centric” broadcasters.

John Whittingdale OBE MP is former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. A Member of Parliament for over 30 years, he also previously chaired the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee during its most famous moment – when a pie was tossed in the face of media mogul Rupert Murdoch at the end of a session. The Sun dubbed John ‘Maggie’s Toy Boy’ when in 1988, aged just 28, he became then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s political secretary. In this in-depth interview, John discusses how people are surprised when they hear of the “vast range of responsibilities” he had when leading the DCMS – including overseeing the work of The National Lottery, leading on policy relating to blockchain and the digital economy, and promoting the UK on a global stage; praises the BBC as “the finest broadcaster in the world” and acknowledges that it may “surprise some people” to hear his strong support – making the case again for the continuation of the licence fee settlement; and shares the challenges involved in balancing protecting the vulnerable from “harmful content online” yet preserving the core democratic principle of free speech – a conundrum which gave rise to the predictably divisive Online Safety Bill.

Hillary Frey is editor-in-chief at Slate. Founded in 1996 by software giant Microsoft, the online magazine brings thoughtful, long-form journalism on culture, politics and current affairs to a global audience. Previously, Hillary worked for the likes of NBC News, Politico and HuffPost, and was editor-in-chief at Yahoo! News. In this in-depth interview, she reflects on how her very first regular writing gig in the late 1990s was for Slate – and how returning nearly three decades later in the editor’s chair is a “funny story and an exciting opportunity”; shares how the company is always searching for ways to “experiment and innovate” in order to retain and grow its subscriber base, in an era when “too many consumers” expect to get high-quality journalism for free; and discusses the tension between covering the most popular stories – such as whether Donald Trump’s putative comeback will be a success – while also ensuring they offer their readers a wide variety of topics.

Carl Zimmer is an award-winning science writer and New York Times columnist. A three-time winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s journalism award, in 2021 Carl was a member of the team at The New York Times which won The Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for their coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this in-depth interview, Carl discusses the topic of his latest book – ‘Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive’ – shedding light on why it is “very difficult and may be impossible” to know precisely what life and death actually are; shares some of the problems that are caused by humans “wrongly making themselves the centre of any definition of life”, instead of realising that “the vast majority of life is not like us”; and reflects on just how much the pandemic dominated his work for two years, and how people trusting the accuracy of Covid-19 coverage is quite literally a matter of life and death.

Scott Armstrong is the former editor-in-chief of Arabian Business magazine, and founder of ‘mentl’ – a platform which provides a holistic approach to mental health issues in the workplace. With more than 30 years of experience as a journalist, editor and strategic communications consultant, his storied career has taken him from the UK to the Bahamas, through Oman to the United Arab Emirates. In this in-depth interview, Scott reflects on his years as an editor and how “instinct, leadership and management skills” are key to success – despite editors rarely receiving management training when promoted, which results in them lacking the necessary skills to lead effectively; argues that in local journalism, there is always a local angle to be found even within global news events – recalling his time working on The Evening Chronicle in Newcastle (UK), when they were able to find local residents who had been first-hand witnesses to the 9/11 attack in Manhattan; and reveals what inspired him to set up his new firm ‘mentl’ – a medium that finds solutions for protecting employees’ mental health – which is “the right thing to do” and is “best for both them and the business”.

Sophie Ferron is CEO of Media Ranch, an award-winning, Canadian production and distribution company, specialising in unscripted TV formats – including factual, reality/docu-reality and lifestyle. After two decades of working across production, broadcasting, distribution and business development, she launched her own venture in 2008. In this in-depth interview, Sophie recalls how working with media giant Endemol, the company behind ‘Big Brother’ and ‘The Real World’, inspired her to focus on unscripted programmes and drove her to expand the concept globally; explains why a reality show needs to leave room for cultural differences, while keeping its overall structure to achieve international success; and shares how her desire to promote the Canadian TV production industry abroad is now bearing real fruit.

Gavin Allen is executive editor-in-chief of Huawei. He joined in 2021, after nearly two decades at the BBC, taking in senior editorial roles at BBC News, including flagship programmes like ‘Question Time’. In this in-depth interview, Gavin tackles the groundless conspiracy theories levelled at the company, the real-world consequences, and the strategy for handling an unjustified reputational attack; shares lessons learnt from launching ‘Transform’ - Huawei’s thought leadership magazine covering brand development across all sectors; and takes us behind the scenes of how he has shaped the role of editor-in-chief in one of the biggest tech companies in the world, taking into account its experience in the media.